Wake ga tame waga te mo suma ni haru no no ni nukeru tsubana zo meshite koemase

戯奴がため我が手もすまに春の野に
抜ける茅花ぞ食して肥えませ

Roma-ji: Wake ga tame waga te mo suma ni haru no no ni nukeru tsubana zo meshite koemase
English Translation: For you, my servant,
without resting my own hands
in the fields of spring
I pulled these reed flowers here:
eat them up and grow plump
Meaning: For you, my little servant, I pulled these reed flowers in the spring fields without resting my hands; eat them and grow plump.
Commentary: Book Eight Spring Love Poems 1460

Headnote: "Two poems sent by Lady Ki to Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi"
Sending Yakamochi the reed flowers she pulled in the spring fields without resting, she teases him to eat them and grow plump. It is a playful poem full of affection, in which an older woman mocks the younger Yakamochi by calling him "wake," her little servant. The note says, "The above were sent with silk-tree blossoms and reed flowers broken off," showing that flowers accompanied this poem and the next.
The author, Lady Ki, was named Oshika and was a daughter of Ki no Kahito. She is said to have become the wife of Prince Aki.
The original text contains a note indicating that "wake" in the first line should be read as such; as it is not part of the poem, it has been removed, and the reading "wake" follows the note.

In the first line, "wake" is an affectionate term for an inferior, here used teasingly for the younger Yakamochi.
The second line means "without resting my hands," stressing, as if to make him feel indebted, the trouble she took in picking them.
The third line names the place where she pulled the reed flowers.
The fourth line, with "zo," insists that these are the very reed flowers; they are sweet and were eaten.
The final line deliberately uses the honorific verbs "mesu" and "masu," joking, "Please eat them and grow plump." Yakamochi answers in 1462 that even eating them he only grows thinner.
Author: Ki no Iratsume
Source: Manyoshu
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